Giants expected to hire Mike Kafka as offensive coordinator, source confirms

The Giants may not have one of the league’s top quarterbacks, but they are surrounding the one they do have with coaches who have helped some of the highest-tiered players at the position thrive.

The latest addition to that conglomerate appears to be Mike Kafka, who has served as Patrick Mahomes’ position coach with Kansas City since 2018 and served as the team’s passing-game coordinator the last two seasons. The Giants are expected to name Kafka their offensive coordinator, a source confirmed to Newsday. NFL Network was the first to report the anticipated hiring.

Kafka will join a staff that also includes Josh Allen’s former offensive coordinator with Buffalo in new Giants head coach Brian Daboll as well as Shea Tierney, who was the assistant quarterbacks coach for the Bills and will be Jones’ position coach with the Giants.

Last year, the Giants spent the offseason trying to surround Daniel Jones with playmakers. This year, they want to surround him with player-makers.

It’s all part of the Giants’ determination to get as clear a picture of Jones as they can in this upcoming season before determining his future with them.

The Giants are unlikely to use their fifth-year option on Jones, which would lock him in with a guaranteed salary of about $22 million for the 2023 season. They have until this May to make that determination, giving the new regime no time with Jones actually on the field before they have to make that call.

The more likely scenario is that Jones goes into the final year of his rookie deal in the 2022 season trying to prove he can be the franchise quarterback the Giants thought they were drafting.

If he succeeds, the Giants then would franchise-tag him for 2023 at about $30 million. If he fails, he won’t be back and the Giants will, as co-owner John Mara said last week, move on to "Plan B" at the position.

Kafka was an NFL quarterback himself, bouncing around the league from 2010-15 and appearing in four games with the Eagles in 2011. He threw two interceptions and no touchdown passes, completing 11 of 16 attempts. After his playing days ended, the Northwestern product returned to his alma mater as a graduate assistant before taking a job as an offensive quality control coach for Kansas City in 2017.

Kafka has never been an offensive play-caller in the NFL, which might be something he is asked to do with the Giants. Daboll, who called the plays in Buffalo, said he will wait to determine who holds that responsibility. General manager Joe Schoen said he would prefer to have the coordinator call plays while the head coach focuses on the big picture during games.

Kafka’s hiring would complete the three most important roles on the coaching staff. The Giants already have decided to retain special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey and figure to bring back Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator. Graham was a finalist for the job of Vikings head coach that reportedly is going to Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell once the Super Bowl is over.

Kafka beat out Texans passing game coordinator Pep Hamilton and Browns passing game coordinator Chad O’Shea.

Kafka is expected to have the authority to hire the rest of his position coaches — wide receivers, tight ends and running backs are the only ones that remain open — as Daboll is a believer in giving that power to his coordinators.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.